Of course, he later learned to be post-ironic, but the It’s all there – the facial expressions, the mugging, the pratfalls, the constant knowing asides to the camera.
I don’t know why I never noticed it before.
Early footage of Ricky Gervais – are you ‘avin’ a laugh?
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I had a similar thought about Bob Hope and Matthew Perry.
Very good – although that clip looks like Niles, Ros and Frasier, (with Niles possibly played by Paul Whitehouse).
Gervais must’ve been taking acting notes from this 1987 Bowie promo
The difference is that Benny Hill was far, far funnier than Gervais will ever be. FACT.
Can take or leave him comedy wise, but I follow him on twitter because of the highly admirable stance he takes on promoting animal welfare, anti hunting, fur trade etc. A good man.
My Nanna had this single, we used to play it on a old Dansette style player.
I can recite the lyrics now…
I’m with RobC on Ricky Gervais. He doesn’t do it for me a s a comedian, but he takes some admirable stances. And he was great in that Muppet film that my grandson likes.
Oh he loves the little furry creatures but his good nature doesn’t always transfer to his fellow humans now does it? The ‘Mong’ incident showing a supreme lack of awareness or any tact coupled with supreme arrogance and privilege. Plus the nasty edge of his fanbase (but it is Twitter after all)
Come on dfb, Rob C’s not that bad. Okay, he may desire the eventual death of about 5 billion humans while we go through the messy process of returning to the pre-industrial age, but …oh…sorry..
As someone who has spent the large majority of their adult working life employed by charities re. the disabled/homeless ? Yeah. That’s it. I found his ‘mong’ highly offensive, most likelely Lennonesque in it’s dated stupidity, but I stand by my attitude to his animal welfare stance, and as for taking taking the the piss out of my views’ ? Fuck you both.
Admins ? Please close my account. Thanks.
*sets egg timer*
Yeah right. Arsehole.
DO THE FLOUNCE
Life can be tough and things can get rough
Out here on the Afterword blog
Nuthin’ but sarcasm n’ bitchin’
But who gives a toss? It ain’t our loss
If you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen
[CH.] Think you’ll be missed when your hand you’ve kissed?
Think only your voice counts?
DO THE FLOUNCE
[girlie chorus] Boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!
DO THE FLOUNCE
Take what’s left of your dignity
Bundle it with your pride
Don’t let the out-door smack your backside
All we can say at the end of the day
Is how can we miss you when you won’t go away?
[MIDDLE EIGHT:]
We can write what we like with nothing to fear
You won’t read this because you’re not here
{REPEAT V.1]
[CH.] Think you’ll be missed when your hand you’ve kissed?
Think only your voice counts?
DO THE FLOUNCE
[girlie chorus] Boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!
DO THE FLOUNCE
[girlie chorus] Boo-hoo! Boo-hoo!
[TO FADE]
Well, The Office is a work of genius, diminishing returns since but we should be thankful we got that show.
Was never the same once Steve Carrell left
The context changes but the tic, tropes and techniques of comedy remain the same
Decades ago the GLW had a holiday in Marrakesh. In the Djemaa el fna (market place) we saw three comedians busking an act. The naive boy, the pompous old fool, the trickster who is not as smart as the thinks… We didn’t understand a word, but we understood. Could have been the Three Stooges, or the Marx Brothers, or Benny Hill. Lots of pratfalls, and slaps around the head. I bet that versions of that show have played for centuries.
Thanks, @fin59, thanks, @paulwright – good comments. I thought this thread had died on its arse, a few sputters after my initial weak squib of an OP – you never can tell what happens to your thought farts after you release them, but this one seems to have caught a second wind, if you will. I’m honoured to have so many heavy weights gracing the thread.
I’m the opposite of Rob and Bob. I love a lot of Gervais’s work, but I think he’s a prick.
That was DFB – I’m entirely with you, Jim. I haven’t seen much of his recent stuff, but The Office means he’s got a place in my heart forever, and Extras has greatly matured with time. I didn’t see any of that Derek one.
But, yep, I strongly suspect he’s a right twat.
Oh sorry – Bobness, not me. As you were.
No, it’s my fault. Using the name Bob in a multi-Bob discussion.
‘The Afterword – hand-built by Roberts’
Spot on with the gervais / Hill comparison. Both excellent comics though Hill is another of that eras oddball, mother obsessed, BBC light entertainment weirdos.
I always thought gervais was being a bit dishonest when he gave credit to laurel and hardy for the deadpan ‘can you believe it?’ look he does to camera, breaking the fourth wall. That’s classic Benny Hill from his 70s prime, and you can imagine him wetting himself laughing every time he saw it.
Ironically, Benny Hill was the only TV personality of his era who wasn’t a sex case.
hi Jim, yes I did mean to say that, it somehow got lost in the edit.
Possibly (and I mean possibly) not the only one, and certainly ironic, considering. You’d have thought if there was any muck on him it would have come out by now.
Interestingly, when Ken Dodd got into hot water over tax, I am sure that there was widespread establishment disgust. If it happened now, he’d probably get a directorship at Merrill Lynch.
Benny’s predilection was for BJs from ‘glamour models’. Over-age and compensated for their effort. I knew one who’s provided a regular service at £200 a pop, or spurt.
That most readable blog Another Nickel In The Machine has a quite good account of the life of Alfie Hill…
http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2012/01/benny-hill-and-the-windmill-theatre-in-great-windmill-street-soho/
That is a fantastic blog. I have been lost for at least the last hour reading about Burgess and Maclean’s last day in London before they fled for the Soviet Union, Charlie Chaplin’s return in 1921, and the sad story of Pauline Boty, co-founder of the Pop Art movement with Blake, Saville etc who died tragically young at the age of just 28. I knew literally nothing about this person until now:
http://www.nickelinthemachine.com/2013/02/pauline-boty-the-anti-uglies-and-bowater-house-in-knightsbridge-2/
Colour Her Gone by Pauline Boty:
http://i917.photobucket.com/albums/ad15/camplimp/Colour-Her-Gone-by-Pauline-Boty-web_zps5xftrkra.jpg
These days that seems quite respectable.
I read somewhere he used to “audition” the Hill’s Angels girls in exactly that manner at his flat.
I haven’t seen the Benny Hill Show in 30 years but still cannot hear the words “It’s raining” without thinking, “What can you do when it’s a-raining?”
The David Brent character is so very good that I can’t successfully separate it from Gervais himself. It’s more than typecasting – when Gervais says the odd borderline thing, I can imagine him clumsily high fiving Finchy.